A shared grocery list app has one job: whoever is in the shop sees what the household needs, and whoever is at home can add the thing that just ran out. A note on one phone cannot do that, and a group chat turns into a search for the last message about milk. A shared shopping list app can, and you do not have to pay for one.
This page compares seven. EpiHem is our own app, so it comes first: a shared shopping list that is free for up to four people, in an app where the week's meal plan can write the list and the receipt is scanned when the shopping is done. After it come AnyList, OurGroceries, Bring! and Listonic, which are built around the grocery list, Apple Reminders, which is already on every iPhone, and Cozi, a family organizer with shopping lists in it. For each one you get what it does, what is free and what it costs.
The short version
Which one fits depends on what the household wants from the list:
EpiHem: the shopping list connected to the rest of the week
The shopping list is where the household's week ends up: what you are going to eat, what ran out this morning, what the party on Saturday needs. Most grocery list apps stop at the list. In EpiHem it is connected to the rest. The calendar is in the same app, the week's meal plan can write the list, and when the shopping is done you scan the receipt and the app works out who owes whom. It runs on iPhone, on Android and in any web browser, so nobody in the house is left out, and a change shows on everyone's screen as it is made.
Free for up to four people
The shared lists are whole in the free version:
- One list on every phone. Everyone in the household sees an item added or ticked off as it happens.
- Type it the way you say it. Write "2 l milk" and EpiHem reads the quantity and the unit.
- Sub-items and tags. An item can carry sub-items, and a list can carry tags, so the weekly shop and the birthday party are easy to tell apart.
- To-do lists and personal lists next to the shopping list: shared ones for the household, and your own for what only concerns you.
- A deleted item comes back. Anything you delete can be restored for 30 days.
- The shared calendar in the same app, the family calendar with recurring events, reminders and the school's calendar added by link.
- No ads, on any plan.
Premium writes the list and reads the receipt
With Premium you stop writing the list from memory. Plan the week's dinners and the meal plan writes the shopping list, grouped by kind of food: bread, fruit and vegetables, meat, dairy, dry goods. The recipes come from your own recipe book, where you save them from a link, from text or from a photo, or have EpiHem create them from a description. Our guide to weekly meal planning shows how.
When the shopping is done, scan the receipt. EpiHem reads the items, the receipt can be attached to the list it was shopped from, and the app works out who owes whom.
Premium costs EUR 6.99 a month or EUR 49.99 a year, and one subscription covers the whole household, up to 8 people. Try it free for 14 days, with no card. EpiHem is made in Sweden, and your household's data is stored in the EU.
What to look for in a shared grocery list app
Call it a shared shopping list or a family grocery list app, four things decide whether the household keeps using it:
- It runs on every phone in the house. One partner on an iPhone and one on Android is common, and a list that leaves one of you out ends up as a text message again. Apple Reminders has no Android app.
- A change shows for everyone as it is made. The point of sharing is that the milk your partner just picked up is gone from your list before you reach the dairy shelf.
- You know what free costs you. Free usually means ads, or a part held back for the paid version. OurGroceries, Listonic and Cozi show ads in their free versions, and AnyList keeps the web browser for its paid subscription.
- The list is connected to the rest of the week. Someone decided what to eat, someone shops and someone paid. An app that stops at the list leaves the meal plan, the calendar and the money in other apps.
EpiHem does the first three in its free version, with the calendar in the same app. Premium adds the meal plan and the receipts.
Shared grocery list apps compared
We read each vendor's own site and its US App Store listing in October 2026. A check means the feature is there, a half mark that it comes with a condition, and a dash that it is missing. Where a vendor does not say, the table says "Not stated". On a phone the table scrolls sideways.
| Feature | EpiHem Our app | AnyList | OurGroceries | Bring! | Listonic | Apple Reminders | Cozi |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| iPhone and Android apps | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial no Android app | Yes |
| In a web browser | Yes free | Partial paid | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes at iCloud.com | Yes |
| A shared list, and how it updates | Yes as it happens | Yes in real time | Yes everyone sees it at once | Yes with notifications | Yes live | Yes | Yes |
| Recipes or a meal plan fill the list | Yes Premium | Yes | Yes | Yes from recipe websites | Not stated | Not stated | Yes dinners on the calendar |
| Sorts the list by aisle or category | Partial only the list the meal plan writes | Yes categories, ordered per store | Yes by aisle | Yes categories | Yes by aisle | Yes categories, from iOS 17 | Not stated |
| Apple Watch or voice entry | No | Yes Watch is paid; Siri and Alexa | Yes Watch and Alexa | Yes Watch | Not stated | Yes Watch | Not stated |
Price and what is free
All seven can be used without paying. What differs is whether the free version shows ads, how much of the app it holds, and what the paid version costs.
| Feature | EpiHem Our app | AnyList | OurGroceries | Bring! | Listonic | Apple Reminders | Cozi |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free version | Lists and calendar for up to 4 people, no ads | Lists, sharing, categories and a meal planning calendar, in the phone app | With ads at the bottom of the screen | All core functions | Unlimited lists and sharing, with ads | Free with Apple devices | Shopping lists, with ads |
| Paid version, per year | EUR 49.99 (EUR 6.99 a month) for the whole household | About USD 10 for one person, about USD 15 for a household | A paid upgrade removes the ads. Price not stated. | About USD 9 (about USD 2 a month) | A paid version removes the ads. Several prices in the store. | None | Cozi Gold, about USD 40 |
The other apps' prices are rounded from what each vendor published in US dollars in October 2026. Prices change, so check the vendor's page before you pay. EpiHem's price is our own, in euros, and the app stores show it in your currency.
AnyList
What you get: A grocery list that follows the way you walk the shop. Lists are shared and updated in real time, and items sort into categories whose order you can set per store. Recipes become list items, the free app has a meal planning calendar, and you can add items through Siri or Alexa.
Where it stops: At the phone, unless you pay. The free version is the phone app. Opening AnyList in a web browser or on a Mac takes AnyList Complete, a paid subscription at about USD 10 a year for one person or about USD 15 a year for a household, and so do the Apple Watch app, store-specific lists, recipe scaling, item photos and location reminders. It is a list and recipe app: a family calendar and receipts are not among the features it lists.
OurGroceries
What you get: A free shared list on iPhone, on Android and on the web, with an Apple Watch app and Alexa. Everyone sees the list at once, items are grouped by aisle, and the ingredients of a recipe can be added to a list.
Where it stops: At the list. The free app shows ads at the bottom of the screen, and removing them is a paid upgrade. OurGroceries lists no calendar and nothing for receipts.
Bring!
What you get: All the core functions in the free version: shared lists with notifications, items in categories, recipe suggestions, and ingredients imported from recipe websites. It runs on iPhone, on Android, on the web and on Apple Watch.
Where it stops: At the list and the recipes. Bring! also shows local offers and store brochures in the app, whether you shop by them or not. Bring! Premium is a paid subscription at about USD 2 a month or about USD 9 a year.
Listonic
What you get: Unlimited lists and unlimited sharing in the free version. Shared lists update live, items are sorted by aisle, and the list works offline. Listonic runs on iPhone, on Android, on the web and on Mac.
Where it stops: At the list, and at the ads: the free version shows them, and its App Store listing says so. Removing them takes Listonic Premium, a paid version with several prices in the store.
Apple Reminders
What you get: An app that is free with the devices and already on every iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch. From iOS 17 a list can be a Groceries list, which sorts the items into categories, and a list can be shared.
Where it stops: At Apple's devices. There is no Android app, so one Android phone in the household is enough to leave someone out. Users in Apple's own support community also describe shared lists that stop syncing. Those are users' reports and not a statement from Apple, and we do not know how common it is today. The calendar is a separate app.
Cozi
What you get: A family organizer with shopping lists in its free version, next to a colour-coded calendar, to-do and chore lists and a recipe box. Dinners planned on the calendar send their ingredients to the shopping list. It runs on iPhone, on Android and on the web, and one account holds up to 12 people.
Where it stops: The free version shows ads, and removing them is a paid subscription, Cozi Gold, at about USD 40 a year. Cozi also says its free version takes calendar events for the next 30 days only. Cozi does not scan receipts or split costs. There is more in our guide to Cozi alternatives.
Which one should you choose?
- You want the shopping list, the week's dinners and the receipts in one place: EpiHem. Start free with the lists and the calendar, and add Premium when the meal plan should write the list and the receipts should be split.
- You shop the same store every week and want the list in its order: AnyList, and count on paying about USD 15 a year if the household wants it in a web browser too.
- You want the list on your watch or through Alexa: OurGroceries, free with ads.
- Everyone has an iPhone: Apple Reminders, until the day someone switches to Android.
- You cook from recipe websites: Bring!, for the ingredients it imports.
- You want unlimited free lists and accept ads: Listonic.
- The calendar is already in Cozi: its shopping lists, free with ads.
If the list should come out of a meal plan, our comparison of meal planning apps covers that side. If the grocery list is one of several things the household wants in one place, see our comparison of family organizer apps.
